This is an essay from us,
the young, to you, the no-longer-quite-as-young. The Internet is the technology
of the future. We are the future. We are the next generation, the ones
who must clean up the mess called the twentieth century. We are the ones
who must use the new millennium to undo the last. And we must and we will
use all the tools that you have left us.

It was not the children who
have destroyed the earth with such utter efficiency. It was not the students
of your schools who call for war. It is not the children who oppress other
children in other countries to make us cheap plastic shoes. No adolescent
has ordered the rain forests to be bumed down. If a child spills milk,
an adult spanks him or her. But when an adult spills oil into our oceans,
no child dare raise their hand, or even their voice. We didn't ask to be
born into a world of nuclear terror and chemical threat. We didn't ask
to be born hating or oppressing other countries. No child is born to go
to war. No one is born a bigot.

But you probably heard all
this before. And we are not asking for your forgiveness. We ask for your
help. Don't leave this world worse than when you came. Give us the tools
we need to fix this world. One of the greatest accomplishments of this
century is the development of the computer. When computers were first created,
they were not of much use. Yes, word processing is very useful. Yes, mathematical
computation has helped immensely. But these were trivial compared to the
creation of networks. With the local area network, different people on
different computers could share their information. Which was useful, of
course. But the creation of the wide area network was great. More specifically,
the creation of the wide area network known as the World Wide Web is one
of the greatest moments in human history. The Internet, as it is also called,
allows instantaneous communication anywhere on the globe. This communication
will become indispensable in our future.

But first, what distinguishes
the human from the animal? Some say arrogance. Some say greed. But the
truth is communication (well, that and opposable thumbs). We are more developed
than animals because of our capacity for communication. Speech allows us
to communicate with other people. Written language allows us to communicate
across long distances to masses of people. Math allows us to converse across
languages. Science allows us to communicate (albeit a rather one-way communication)
with nature. Telephones allow us to communicate over long distances. Radio
and television allow us instantaneous mass communication. These communications
have helped develop our civilization, and indeed, it could be said that
without communication, there could be no civilization. Communication is
the most important trait of the Homo sapiens.

And the greatest method of
communication has just been invented. The Internet gives us the power for
instantaneous long-distance de-massified mass media. The Internet gives
us the power to search virtually infinite web pages of different opinions,
to communicate with different people all over the world, to write our opinions
and post them. Using this, we can talk to people from all over the world.
We can abolish the worst trait of the human race, prejudice. And we can
start with the Internet.

We must use this great power
to stop all the war and oppression on our world. I'm not saying that we
will end all hate in the next year, or even the next decade. That would
take an act of God. But acts of men are more reliable than acts of God.
Where else can we talk peace and tolerance where it could be taken seriously?
Marching in the streets was a Seventies thing, it is burnt out and unfashionable.
We don't want to follow in our parent's footsteps, screaming at the government,
high on marijuana and LSD. Or follow the punks, using loud rock music.
That was tried in the late 70s and the early 80s, screaming anarchist song
lyrics high on amphetamine and cocaine. This is the new millennium. The
kids are high on Prozac and Ritalin; our addiction was spoon-fed to us
by our parents. We know that screaming gets us nowhere, even if it is a
lot of fun. Our predecessors had fun. We have to fix things. We have to
talk with each other across racial, social, and national lines. We are
not Marxists shouting for class war. We are not hippies protesting American
soldiers, or Black Panthers fighting for racial equality. We are something
new: we are working for global unity.

We must use the Internet
to bring together the children of today. We must all see things differently
than our forefathers. Some believe that Xenophobia is programmed in human
genes, resulting in racism and clichéd prejudice. I believe that
fear of anything strange is not natural in humans, but is instead natural
in our societies. We can and must change this. And through communication
via the Internet, we will. If you give us this tool now.

You have asked me to write
about myself. But I will not, for that will mark me out as one adolescent
stranger than the rest. That would make me stand out among the countless
children who stand for change. Instead, think of me as the voice of the
next generation. I did not ask to be born into this world. But here I am,
inspired to leave it a better place than when I came.